Prince Charles wasn’t shy of saying it how he sees it as a two day conference for forest scientists this week.
Well-known for his passion for environmental concerns, the Prince of Wales took the opportunity to publically criticise the “corporate lobbyists” and those sceptical of climate change.
During the speech at St James’ Palace, he compared the earth to a ‘dying patient’ and warned ‘the risk of delay is so enormous that we can’t wait until we are absolutely sure the patient is dying.”
Like the audience at the conference, we warmly welcome the Prince’s stance and his assertion that the world’s corporates must take responsibility for leading action on climate change.
Organic Energy is a member of The Prince’s MayDay Network. This amazing organisation brings together businesses across the UK committed to taking action to protect the environment.
The first Mayday Summit took place in 2007, organised by Community at the request of Prince Charles. More than 1,000 business leaders made more than 5,500 pledges to take action on climate change.
At last year’s summit, held in Wales, the MayDay Network launched its ’9 billion challenge’ to focus on the wider aspects of responsible business, delivering both social and environmental impact in order to foster long-term sustainability.
Wales Director for Business in the Community, Simon Harris said at the event: “By 2050, 9 billion people will be living on our planet. Continuing with business as usual and our current levels of consumption will mean that 50 per cent of people will be living in poverty or dispossessed. The question for business is will your products survive and thrive in this context?”
This is a question which the corporate giants are yet to answer fully – greenwash and fiddling around the edges aside.
Big changes are needed. A fundamental shifts in attitude is required. We need to crack open a debate which is not just about global warming and ethical shopping.
Prince Charles this week took the opportunity to remind these global businesses of what they are risking by not collaborating and committing to action on climate change. We hope it didn’t fall on deaf ears.



Extended chills highlight nation’s energy ills
Sometimes it takes extreme circumstances to focus the mind on an issue. The current cold snap has done just that, bringing the rising costs of energy into sharp focus.
It’s easy to bumble along as the price of heating homes and offices and powering industry keeps nudging up quarter by quarter. We grumble, blame the energy companies and governments, but essentially do very little. Most people don’t even shop around energy suppliers because, let’s face it, they all move their prices pretty much in line with each other anyway…
But when there is a consistent freeze, with older people trapped in their homes by snow and ice and forced to keep the heating turned up, then the cost of energy and its immediate and direct impact on daily life really becomes a concern.
According to The Times newspaper, this situation has today prompted a reaction from a group of more than 100 charities, businesses and, er, energy companies. Apparently a letter leaked to the newspaper suggests these organisations are warning the Prime Minister that a fuel poverty crisis looms because of the failures of his Government.
Now, the more cynical among us might have to put aside for the moment thoughts of an agenda by the energy companies in backing such a call (they wouldn’t mind less demand on them to fund sustainable power, for example), but there’s no denying that this group has a fairly strong point overall.
The measures we have had announced so far (the Green Deal and the Energy Company Obligation) seem to be little more than fiddling around the edges, massaging apparent financial benefits for some people, in certain circumstances. They don’t amount to the mass insulation of a stock of ageing homes or the embracing of the more sensible, high technology approaches to sustainable energy. It feels like more of the same old, same old with some frills and window dressing.
There are so many ideas out there either waiting to be tried or which are already tried and tested and are just straining to be put to better and wider use – such as community heating projects and other approaches to more localised collaboration. Anything that causes less reliance on the gang of big energy suppliers might be seen as welcome.
Technology continues to make renewable and micro generation more and more capable of delivering heat and power. We make no apology for highlighting here the amazing efficiency of our world-leading ÖkoFEN wood pellet boilers. They are not just another method for burning wood as a fuel, they are a thoughtfully engineered and tremendously efficient user of the fuel that goes into them and they are just one example of how we can diversify the ways we meet our energy needs.
We don’t exist as a company to be political but we do work very hard to be practical. Unfortunately that’s something our current government is not achieving, with vacillating energy policies that make everyone in the sector nervous of making any firm decisions and which seem to run scared of taking any bold turns.
So if it takes a letter to the PM signed by the good, the bad and the downright ugly who can all see, from their varied standpoints, that we’re not getting this right as a country, the rest of us can only hope that our political leaders are paying attention – for the sake of those freezing pensioners, if no-one else.
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Tagged ÖkoFEN, biomass, boilers, Energy Company Obligation, government, Green Deal, microgeneration, sustainable energy, wood pellet